News of the World closed down: newspaper staff direct fury at Rebekah Brooks

Staff at the News of the World last night directed their fury at Rebekah
Brooks, who edited the newspaper during some of its most controversial years.

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Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International

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News International chairman James Murdoch arrives at NI offices in WappingPhoto: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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Andy Coulson to be questioned by police over News of the World phone hackingPhoto: GETTY IMAGES

By Victoria Ward

7:00AM BST 08 Jul 2011

Mrs Brooks, who is now the chief executive of News International, the newspaper’s parent company, was confronted by a “lynch mob mentality” as she told News of the World staff that Sunday’s edition would be its last.

It was claimed that she was in tears as she broke the news but was immediately asked to leave the newsroom by the paper’s present editor Colin Myler, a highly regarded Fleet Street veteran, and had to be escorted out by security.

Staff were said to have cheered when told that Mrs Brooks had offered her resignation on Wednesday night, although it was turned down. A source said: “The joke ran through the room that we would accept the offer on the company’s behalf. We were all feeling fatalistic.

“Colin told us that the decision to close the paper had been made in New York, that as soon as the suits there saw that the shares had started to slide they thought they had to cut us off.

“Rebekah tried to justify her actions by saying that the actions of a few had led to this, but the irony that she was one of those few was lost on her. She said that she would take any questions that people had, but Myler, who was standing next to her said, 'No, Rebekah, I think it’s best if you leave the floor’. An entire newspaper has been sacrificed to save one person.”

One journalist, who did not wish to be named, said: “Brooks has lost us our jobs because she has refused to fall on her sword. Saving one job has come at the cost of 200.”

James Murdoch, the chairman of News International, stood by Mrs Brooks, insisting that she would remain in her post. Mrs Brooks has always denied any knowledge of phone hacking. The majority of the paper’s 200 staff are relatively young and had no connection with the newspaper during the years when Mrs Brooks, or her successor, Andy Coulson, were at the helm.

Employees have been given a 90-day paid period of consultation. They will then be given a pay-off comprising their notice period plus a month for every year they have worked for the newspaper.